Golden as the Sun
by Kodokunatsuki
Summary: The black-eyed general gazed down at the boy held securely in his arms. His next words were whispered, not aimed at anybody in particular. "We have our Fullmetal Alchemist again." RoyxEd, AlxWinry, HavocxOC
1. Prologue

Prologue:

It was a calm, cloudless night. The moon hung overhead, a perfect circle. The military parade grounds were empty and still, the buildings overlooking it dark. Central City was sleeping.

An electric feeling seeped into the air. The animals turned toward it, tasting the air, then fled. The smell grew slowly, intensifying. You could almost hear the air crackle. It felt like a storm was coming.

A giant explosion suddenly shook the headquarters. Dirt and rocks sprayed out, and a mushroom cloud rose high into the air. Hundreds of soldiers woke suddenly, throwing on their uniforms and grabbing their guns. Soon, a huge mass of people stood in a semi-circle around a newly formed crater, guns pointing down into it.

A black-haired man with the stars and stripes of a major general on his shoulders pushed his way through the crowd to the edge of the crater. The dust was finally settling, and they saw two figures huddled on the ground in the center. Obviously this was no ordinary explosion, if they were still intact.

"Identify yourselves!" the general shouted in a clear, ringing voice. There was no answer. He waited a moment longer, and then held out his hand. A blond woman with a captain's insignia placed a pair of binoculars in his hands. He took a good long look. "Impossible…" he whispered.

He tossed the binoculars behind him, uncaring of where they landed, and quickly descended into the crater. "Sir!" the woman called, her voice stern, but worried. She put the lenses to her own eyes, then quickly dropped them and followed.

They reached the two bodies together. Blood soaked the ground. A girl lay on her side, her right arm missing. She was unfamiliar to the two soldiers, and her clothes were strange. Next to her was a young man, his arms clenched tightly around her waist from behind her. His right arm was artificial, though not the automail normal to this country. His hair was long, reaching almost to the middle of his back, and golden.

The general knelt down in front of the two, carefully removing the boy's arms from around the girl's waist. He lifted the girl as gently as he could and deposited her into the captain's arms. Then he turned to the boy and smoothed his hair back from his face. He lifted him up, staring at his face as if to memorize every little detail.

"Come on, Captain," he said, carefully containing the shock and elation coursing through him. "We have to get these two to the hospital as quickly as possible." He could fall apart after that.

"Yes, sir," the captain said, following his example and staying all business. Her jacket was pressed tight against the girl's missing limb, and blood was slowly staining it a dark purple.

They hurried as quickly as they could back to the edge of the crater, trying to avoid jostling the two young people. They set them on the edge of the drop, then clambered up the steep slope before picking them up again. "Lieutenant Breda," the major general said. The portly man was staring at the blond boy in amazement.

"Yes, Major General," the lieutenant said, snapping a salute.

"Get us medical transport, immediately. Second Lieutenant Fury, notify the appropriate personnel." The black-eyed general gazed down at the boy held securely in his arms. His next words were whispered, not aimed at anybody in particular.

"We have our Fullmetal Alchemist again."


	2. Homecoming

Golden as the Sun, Chapter 1

Here is the second chapter of my beautiful story. Really I'm surprised I got it up so soon ^-^. I am pretty satisfied with how this came out, but... well, I'll let you be the judge. Please reveiw, you've been wonderful to me so far! Tell me what you think of how I'm doing the characters - I don't think they're OOC, but you never know.

* * *

><p>Riza Hawkeye opened the door to the hospital room and glanced inside. Her commanding officer still sat next to Ed's bed, his eyes locked on the younger man's face. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her, knowing that Breda and Falman were standing guard outside to warn off any unwelcome visitors. The morning sun streamed in through the window, giving everything a golden tint that matched Ed's long hair.<p>

"He'll wake up when he's ready," she told Mustang, her voice understanding. "It wouldn't hurt to get some sleep, or something to eat." Roy looked slightly haggard, still in yesterday's uniform, a five o'clock shadow gracing his chin.

"I know," he said softly, his gaze not flickering an inch. She waited for him to elaborate, but he seemed content to simply sit and watch. It was an understandable desire, seeing as Riza wouldn't mind just doing that either.

They hadn't believed he was dead, but after five years you begin to lose hope. It was like an eclipse, she supposed. Everything seems normal, the sun burning overhead, irreplaceable and brighter than anything else, and then suddenly it's gone. All the light and warmth is leaving, and you're hoping and praying it will come back, but it doesn't. You can't help but count the seemingly endless seconds, and you're standing frozen, shivering, and you're starting to stop believing what has always been true – that it will always come back – and then suddenly the darkness lifts and the sun reappears. Its golden light and life-giving warmth pour down, and you breathe a sigh and everything is right again. Ed was their sun, the burning brightness in their lives, and without him many of them were lost. She would give Roy the luxury of re-memorizing that face.

She looked over at the second bed in the room. The girl who had appeared with Ed lay there, bandages wrapped tightly around her right shoulder where her arm should be. It was just like Ed's injury, and Riza wondered exactly how they had gotten here, and where they had come from.

The girl looked to be a few years younger than Ed, who was now 21, if she remembered correctly, and had the looks to go along with it. She had pale skin from too little sun, and a thin, malnourished body. Her hair was a dark reddish-brown, and it fell in short waves to her shoulders. She wished the two young people would wake up, so they could get some answers.

"Brother!" The door burst open, admitting an overenthusiastic Al, who immediately jumped towards the bed with his sibling, almost knocking over Ed's IV while he was at it. Winry was close behind, joining Al on the opposite side of the bed from Mustang. "Oh, Al, look, it's really him. It's really Ed," Winry breathed, wrapping her arms tight around Al and squeezing him tight. "Brother…" Al whispered, hugging Winry back with one arm and running his fingers through Ed's silky hair with the other. His voice shook, as did his hands. Water glistened at the corners of his eyes, and he buried his face in Winry's shoulder.

"We came on the first train, as soon as we heard," Granny Pinako said, ambling in after the two exuberant youngsters. She was smiling calmly. Not even her surrogate grandson returning from god-knows-where in an explosion could faze her.

"Hello, Ms. Rockbell," Riza said, nodding to the tiny woman. Winry and Al sank into the two chairs already placed on their side of the bed. Riza made to get a fourth chair for Pinako from the other side of the room, but Roy stopped her with a gesture.

"Don't bother, Captain. I'll leave Ed to his family. I need to change and eat, and Fullmetal's return is going to give me a lot of work." He groaned as he stood up, stretching his back. "Besides, these chairs are not the most comfortable things in the world." He flashed a tired but genuine smile at Al and Winry, which was returned, and bowed to Pinako before striding out of the room. Hawkeye followed his lead, bowing as she shut the door behind him.

* * *

><p><em>He wanted to get home so desperately. This world was cruel to him, absent of automail and alchemy and so restrictive. The colors seemed duller, the air colder. Here he was just a crazy little cripple, a prodigy in a made-up science. No one would believe his stories, so he stopped telling him. Amestris became a construct of his own imagination, only the dying automail to prove that he was not insane.<em>

_Even that he had to eventually abandon for this world's crude prosthetics. His home was being ripped away from him. He could barely remember Winry's smile, or Major Armstrong's stupid purple sparkles, or Granny's cooking, or Al's voice, or the Colonel Bastard's flames. What he would give for a homunculus trying to kill him!_

_That was why, when he met Alexandria, someone who looked as broken as he did, someone, who seemed like she actually was insane, he spilled his story to her. Her uncle was a scientist for the Fuhrer's army, and she understood the chemistry and physics of this world that were pretty much foreign to him. She drilled him for every bit of alchemical knowledge he had, determined that they would both get a happy ending._

_She had a tendency to lock herself in her lab and ignore everything but her work. He could only stand so much of this, as he was in this dreary world and not his own, bright one. He would wander around Berlin, careful not to stray into the darkest alleyways. He did not believe in God, but he liked to visit the small church near the house. Religion, he thought, caused so much strife, and yet, it gave so much comfort to people who needed something to believe in. He liked to sit in the back while they sang hymns and prayed, or when it was quiet and only a few people sat in the pews, with their heads bowed and their Bibles in their laps. The stained glass windows somehow made the dim church more like home. He never talked to anyone, he just sat there and listened._

_It was the anniversary of his arrival in this godforsaken world, five years ago, when Alexandria grabbed him and drove them out to a large empty field several miles outside of Berlin. Storm clouds rumbled overhead, and the rain soaked them both through. He drew a circle for human transmutation around them with heavy ropes, secured to the ground by stakes._

_She stood with her back to him and held a long metal cylinder above her head. She had tried to explain it to him several times, but he had been unable to understand the foreign concepts while longing for alchemy so hard. He remembered the word 'nuclear', but that was about it. He stood behind her, too desperate to be afraid of whatever insane plan she was trying._

_He smelled it before it happened; an electric smell rising around them. He dove forward and grabbed on to her waist just as the white-hot bolt of pure electricity hit them, sparking a reaction inside that metal cylinder. And then he felt that old feeling of being transmuted, and he felt ecstatic, happier than he had been in years. In the next moment, they were gone, and the only thing to show that something had happened there was a patch of scorched earth where the circle had been._

* * *

><p>The warmth was familiar, warmth he hadn't felt in five years. The Amestrian sun was shining down on him. He took a moment to revel in the feeling. It had been so long since he had felt this, and he felt contentment run down his body, from the top of his head to the tips of his feet. He nearly purred with satisfaction. This was what waking up was supposed to feel like.<p>

His eyelids were heavy, but he opened them anyway, needing to see the colors of Amestris. He caught a glimpse of whitewashed ceiling before a face blocked it, one that was familiar and yet… not quite. He blinked, confused. When he heard the ecstatic yell of "Brother!" though, he realized who this was, and a happy smile stretched, unbidden, across his lips.

"Hey, Al," he said, his voice rough from dryness and lack of use. He hadn't talked much in the dull world.

The laugh that sounded from his brother's flesh-and-blood body sounded so good that he closed his eyes and drank in the sound. "It's really you; you're really back!" Al said, and the thump he heard told him that Al had jumped as high into the air as possible. He opened his eyes again and watched Al dance around the room, free of the giant armor that had once limited him.

"You better not do anything like that again, you heard me, Ed?" a second, female voice shouted in his ear. Ed jerked away in surprise, but it was so good to hear that voice that he didn't stop smiling for a second.

"Sure, Winry, anything you say," he told her, sitting up and grinning even as she burst into tears and hugged him tight.

"Winry, girl, calm down and give the boy a little room. It's got to be as much of a shock to him as it is to us," an older voice scolded, though her tone was more amused than reprimanding.

"It's fine, Granny Pinako," Ed said, twisting in Winry's embrace to catch a glimpse of the woman who was as much of a grandmother to him as she was to Winry. All the warning he got a was a lash of blonde hair before Al piled on on top of Winry and they all fell onto the bed.

"What's wrong!" someone shouted from the doorway. "I heard shouting and – " But Roy Mustang never finished his sentence, catching sight of the golden eyed man nearly buried under his family.

"Hey, Colonel Bastard," Ed said, his eyes dancing with happiness.

Roy Mustang would deny it fervently from that day on, but that was the closest he'd come to fainting since his mother announced that she would be moving to Xing, and he had better get off his lazy bum and find himself something to do with his life.

* * *

><p>Thank you so much to all who reviewed and alerted! Reviews make me write faster, so keep 'em coming!<p> 


	3. Awakening

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, faved, or alerted! I'm so glad to see my work appreciated. *bows*

I'm not sure if I lived up to expectations on this chapter; I wasn't really sure how to do an Ed-breakdown. Or if my OC would be well-recieved. I haven't even decided if I'm going to name her Alexandria or Jophiel. She's part English, part German.

Please tell me what you think. Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to do this for the first two chapters:

Fullmetal Aclhemist does not belong to me.

* * *

><p>Roy grabbed hold of the door frame, anchoring himself to reality. Hearing Ed's voice after all these years, umuddled by memory and right in front of him… looking into those molten gold pools… he half expected an alarm to jerk him awake any second now. But Ed was too real, too solid for this to be another dream. He dug his fingers into the wood to keep him from shaking.<p>

"Colonel? Hey, Mustang, what is it? Are you okay?" That was Ed, sounding far too concerned. His radiant smile was fading fast, worry and a hint of fear taking its place. He had to stop that expression from taking hold on Ed's face.

He cleared his throat and straightened up, dropping his arm to his side. "I'm fine, Fullmetal, no need to sound so distraught. I'm simply astounded that it's been five years, and yet your maturity doesn't seem to have grown an inch." He let the old smirk settle onto his lips.

"Hey, who are you callin' short?" Ed demanded. "I'll have you know I grew three inches!"

Mustang frowned. Something was off. Normally, Ed would have exploded even at a vague insult like that. His response then had sounded more tired than enraged. "Whatever," he said absently, flapping his hand in Ed's direction and glancing around the room. "Besides, it's not Colonel anymore, Fullmetal. I was promoted, to Major General."

"Eh? An idiot like you was promoted to Major General? No way!" Ed said, though a slight smile danced around the corners of his mouth.

"Ed, you shouldn't talk to the Major General like that," Al said, more out of habit than anything else. He was thoroughly ignored by everyone in the room.

"Well, you were gone for a long time," Roy said quietly, his trademark smirk slipping off his face.

Ed's lips curled downwards, and he looked away, his eyes tightly shut. Roy's chest constricted at the young man's expression of anguish. "Brother? What's wrong?" Al asked, laying a hand gently on his brother's shoulder.

Ed flinched at the contact, then relaxed, letting the warmth of another human being soothe him. He glanced up through his bangs at Mustang, who looked at him with the deepest of concern. It was strange how black eyes could seem so warm. He looked down at his hands, fisted in the sheets.

"I'm alright, Al. It's nothing." He looked over – over, not up! – to his little brother and gave him a small smile. "I'm just – I mean, it's really good to be back, y'know?" To his embarrassment, he felt tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. "It's been so long, I guess it just seems – too good to be true!" His voice was shaking badly, and he was suppressing a sob.

Roy smiled sadly. He closed the door and crouched next to the bed. "It's okay to let go, Ed," he said softly. "Sometimes you just need a good cry to get it all out of your system. Anyone else who had gone through whatever it is you went through would have broken into pieces by now."

"We all love you, Ed. And that isn't going to change anytime soon," Winry said, leaning towards him on the bed.

"You need to understand that we aren't going to leave you to handle everything on your own," Pinako scolded him. "Start letting us bear some of your burden.

"You're home now, big brother," Al said, rubbing Ed's back in large, comfortable circles.

Ed finally let go and broke down into sobs, burying his face into Al's chest as the others sat there, giving him strength by their presence alone. He was so lucky to have people who would wait for him for so long, and then welcome him back with open arms. His sobs racked his frame, and he tried to keep them relatively quiet, but he couldn't help it. Eventually he let himself wail as much as he needed.

* * *

><p><em>The space around her was an infinite white void. In front of her was a great pair of bronze doors, inscribed with symbols and pictures she had no hope of understanding. Alchemy was not her science.<em>

"But it will become your science,"_a __strange, __echoing __voice __said. __She __turned __abruptly, __surprised __that __she __hadn__'__t __sensed __anyone __watching __her. __Her __fingers __twitched __to __see __nothing __but __a __white __silhouette, __outlined __by __some __sort __of __black __mist._

"_What __are __you?__" __she__asked.__She __remembered __the __lightning __striking __them, __Ed__'__s __arms __around __her __waist (practically the only time they'd ever touched), __and __a __wave __of __energy __so __powerful __she__'__d __felt __like __she __was __being __torn __apart, __and __then__… __nothing. __She __had __no __idea __where __this __vast __place __was. __Was __this __the __result __of __alchemy? __Had __her __theory __worked?_

"Yes. You have created a pathway for yourself. But there is a price for meddling in a world not your own. There is always a price." _A __wide, __repulsive __smile __appeared __in __the __empty __silhouette, __and __she __felt __the __urge __to __scream. __Something __grabbed __her __from __behind, __and __another, __and __another__… __She __was __being __dragged __through __the __huge __doors. __She __twisted __around __to __see __where __she __was __being __taken, __and __saw __streams __of __pure __knowledge __running __past __her, __imprinting __themselves __into __her __brain. __They __were __being __pulled, __along __with __her, __to __a __bright __core, __an __infinite __source __of __knowledge. __She __wanted __it __so __badly, __wanted __to __reach __out __and __grab __it. __She __was __so __close__…_

_Then she was abruptly back in the white void. She clawed at the closed doors, needing to get back to the bright core. "Please!" she shouted. "Please, let me back in there! I need to know… I need to see…!"_

"I'm afraid not,"_the __strange __voice __told __her, __amusement __in __its __cold __tone. _"You see, you haven't paid the right price for that."

_She turned to it, wide-eyed with desperation for a second look. "What?" she asked it, her mind unable to fully comprehend what it was saying._

"Look," _it __said, __that __awful __grin __on __its __face. __It __raised __an __empty __arm __to __point __at __her. __As __she __watched, __the __tip __of __the __arm __filled. __She __felt __a __terrible __sense __of __loss, __as __if __something __was __being __torn __from __her, __and __looked __down __at __her __arm. __It __was __vanishing __as __she __watched, __and __she __screamed._

* * *

><p>Pain. That was the first thing she recognized, before she even knew she was awake. Terrible pain and loss. She couldn't even tell where it was coming from at the moment. The second thing she knew was light, making the space under her eyelids a beautiful, rich red. It was a different light than she was used to, somehow more real, more there, just more.<p>

Suddenly her head felt stuffed. A thousand circles danced through her mind, equations and runes and oh so much more. She felt overwhelmed, caught up in her own mind. Slowly, the flow receeded, and she became herself again, a singular, individual entity. Of course, that meant a return of the pain as well. It seemed to be coming from her right arm.

Then she remembered the white space and the awful grinning silhouette. So that had been real. It had felt real, and she clearly remembered the horror of it, but it seemed farther away now.

She watched the amoebas behind her eyes for a few moments, until she became more aware of the world around her. Sobbing, gradually slowing down, was coming from somewhere close. She tried to open her eyes, but they seemed too heavy. She stayed silent, too tired to move anything, while it calmed down and stopped. She vaguely recognized it, but she had never heard it so intense. It was a little embarrassing to listen to. Like her, Edward had always been in the habit of keeping his emotions closely guarded. She'd never overheard him break down like this.

She noticed breathing from several other people when the sobbing calmed down. This was even more unusual, but she supposed that Edward would be more open in front of people Edward had known from before. She wondered who the other people were. She had heard some about them from Edward, and seen the drawings he made, but she wanted to meet them. She wanted to know the people that were so precious to him.

The atmosphere in the room seemed slightly awkward, as if no one knew quite what to say. This continued for a minute, until a loud growling sound issued from the group of people. This was quickly followed by snickering from two people. She would have grinned as well, if she wasn't so tired.

"It astonishes me, how you can be hungry at any time, no matter what the situation," a very amused older male voice said. She grinned as she imagined the blush on Edward's face, part embarrassment, part frustration. And maybe even part amusement.

"Aw, shut up, I have no control over stuff like that! And it's not my fault! An IV doesn't do much for a guy's stomach, you know!" She'd never had the opportunity to see – figuratively speaking of course – Edward so open before. In this place, with these people, he was like the golden light that spilled over her face. The sound of laughter from the four other people, with Edward joining in a moment later, was contagious, and she let out a little huff of amusement in spite of herself.

In a flash the older man stopped laughing. She assumed he was looking at her now, from the swish of fabric caused by rapid movement. That one had good senses. The others stopped laughing more slowly.

She felt a large body crouch next to her. "Can you open your eyes?" he asked. His voice was almost gentle. It was kind of nice, for once. Her eyes flickered open and closed quickly. They were watering from the light, but as she blinked them away, the shape of a handsome man's face swam into view above her. His eyes were black, but they also seemed warm and inviting.

"Hi," she said, her voice dry from misuse.

"Welcome to Central," the man said.

* * *

><p>Please R&amp;R!<p> 


	4. Introductions

Oh, my god I can't believe it took so long to finish this! I've been busy with looking for colleges and writing the five hundred essays my taechers are giving me but still!

I had writer's block for a little while on this. I wasn't entirely sure how my presentation of Resi (my OC) came out. I think the last part of this chapter is the best, definately. OCs are always the hardest to get right without making them irrelevant or Mary-Sues. I'm also not sure if I protrayed Roy's feelings for Ed correctly, and I'm not entirely sure of what to do with Ed's feelings for Roy, but I have a pretty good idea. I promise I will get the next chapter out without such a long wait next time...!

NaNoWriMo's coming up, so I will be spending time on that (maybe I will actually do it this year, instead of wimping out a quarter of the way through!) but I will not neglect this!

Please reveiw. Reveiws feed my story, which is very hungry. My stories live off of reviews.

Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or alerted so far!

_Disclaimer - If I owned Fullmetal Alchemist, I wouldn't need a disclaimer, now would I?_

* * *

><p>Ed swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. His legs wobbled. "Whoops!" he said. Granny Pinako only just caught him before he fell. It was only now that he registered the pain throughout his body – nothing intense, but a light ache from a multitude of shrapnel bruises.<p>

The girl from the other side of the Gate gave him a light laugh. "It's strange to see you so uncoordinated," she said. German seemed to be the same language as Amestrian, which was one less hassle to deal with when crossing over the Gate. She continued to laugh as he glared good-naturedly and made his shaky way over to her. She lifted her left hand up and spread out her fingers, looking at the whitewashed ceiling from them.

Ed sat down on her bed by her legs. "Hey, Resi," he said seriously. She looked at him, dropping her arm down and frowning. Her eyes were dazed, as if she weren't really there.

"Yes, Edward?" she said.

"Thanks. For getting me back."

He felt his family and the Col – General look at him and back at her. He knew the question they were all dying to ask, but he wanted to let Resi know how much being home meant to him, first.

She closed her eyes and brought up the corners of her mouth. "Yeah… I know, Edward." Her breathing evened out into that of someone in a deep sleep.

Ed stretched his arms above his head, yawning hugely. As he brought them back down, he noticed that the auto mail was back. It was his price for crossing back over the Gate. That and…

He frowned. The Gate had taken something else, he knew that. But what was it? He couldn't remember for the life of him. He shrugged and put it aside, knowing it would come back and bother him later, as his stomach gave another fierce growl.

"Food, now," he demanded. "And clothes. Then I'll talk." He stood up and stretched out his back, then bent over and reached toward his toes.

"Here you go, big brother," Al said, handing him a bag. "I brought some of my clothes, so they might be a little big…"

"Oh, really? You think I'm still a little shorty, huh?" Ed snatched the bag away from Al, who was grinning. He couldn't help growling a little, but he made sure no one could see the tiny smile that danced on his lips as he stalked away. Al might start thinking Ed liked being called short. He didn't!

…Well, maybe a little, but just because he missed his brother. Not because he actually did!

"Of course not, brother, but I'll always be bigger than you," Al said, following Ed into the bathroom to make sure he didn't slip and crack open his head.

* * *

><p>Roy watched them go. He was in a daze, wondering how Ed had gotten back, who the girl was, what he'd been doing all this time, and most of all where he'd been. And why he couldn't get back before now.<p>

And, in some selfish little (or not so little) portion of his mind, if Ed had missed him.

He nearly jumped several feet into the air when Pinako Rockbell laid a hand on his shoulder. She smiled up at him, her glasses flashing. "Thank you for calling us as soon as you could, Major General," she said gently. "It means so much."

Roy looked down at her. He remembered delivering Al to her when the boy was still lost without his brother, and he remembered having to break the news to her that Ed was missing. He never wanted to have to do something like that again. But calling Pinako to tell her that Ed was back, that he was safe, that he was healthy, just sleeping… "That was a pleasure, Mrs. Rockbell," he said, smiling at her and Winry.

"Thank you, Mr. Mustang," Winry said. "You've… taken care of them as best you could for years. I know Al, at the very least, is grateful." She was still awkward around him, but he knew she forgave him for taking away the people she held most dear.

"Well then," Pinako said, patting Winry's knee. "I'm going to go get some food for Ed. Would you come with me, Winry?" Winry nodded mutely and stood up to follow her. She bowed her head to Mustang as she left the room.

Roy sighed and slumped forward. His eyes strayed toward the bathroom door, and then quickly looked away. He could hear water running, but the sound didn't quite cover the whimpers that began to come from behind him.

He turned to look at the girl. She had her eyes shut tight, and moisture leaked out from the corners. She appeared to be asleep. Clearly she wasn't enjoying whatever she was dreaming about. He hesitated slightly before touching the pads of his fingers lightly to her arm. She jerked away almost instantly. Her skin was cold, and had an odd texture, not like his skin, though it looked almost exactly the same. It wasn't smooth enough, not that it was rough, and too dry. Almost like a well-preserved corpse.

He shivered. Who was this person? She continued to whimper, and hunched her body inwards, as if to protect herself. He took her arm more firmly this time and shook her to make her wake. She gasped and sat up, her eyes unfocused. She didn't even notice him as she looked down at her empty right shoulder and grabbed it, letting her head fall forward. "My arm…" she whispered. "It hurts…"

"Madam?" Roy said carefully, suddenly realizing that he didn't know her name. She looked up at him, and he saw that her eyes were a grayish mud brown, a color that he'd never really seen before.

"Yes, sir?" she said. She straightened up as she took in his uniform.

"May I inquire as to your name?" he said.

She looked away, muttering in a language he didn't know. "Resi Jana Thalberg," she said, refusing to look at him. "That is my name." She spoke Amestrian oddly, as if she was not entirely comfortable with it. She had a hint of an accent, one that he seemed to remember hearing from some ambassador…

"Where are you from?" Roy asked. She seemed to be pouting.

"Germany!" she said hotly, defensively.

Mustang frowned. He didn't know of any country called 'Germany', and he knew of all the countries in the world. "Are you sure?" he asked, gazing at a world map in his head.

Ed strolled out of the bathroom, covering up his soreness quite well. Al followed him out, carrying the hospital gown in his arms. "Technically, Resi, you used to be from Britain – or, England, whatever – and your name used to be Alma Roz Hall."

"But it's not anymore, is it," she said, still refusing to look at anyone. She gazed out of the window, into the bright sun. She barely blinked, drinking in the light.

"Uh, Resi? I think that's bad for your eyes." Ed's statement of blatant fact didn't provoke any reaction from Resi, or Alma, whichever she actually was.

After a moment, Resi sighed. "It seems so much more… real." Her expression was one of longing, of someone who was, for the first time, experiencing something akin to heaven. "The light, the colors… the warmth, the texture of the fabric… even the hunger and the pain. It's like the rest of my life has been artificial, and now it's real, and I can't tell if I'm dreaming now or if I was dreaming then."

Ed hummed his agreement and turned away, sitting back down on his hospital bed. He ran his fingers through his hair repeatedly and played with the ends, not particularly paying attention to what he was doing. Al and Roy stayed silent, unsure of how to deal with the two silent people. Roy found himself noticing Ed's broadened shoulders and more muscular back. His hair was longer and thicker, too, and his face was older now. Ed had certainly matured in five years.

* * *

><p>The silence was interrupted as Winry burst back into the room, her cheerful, rambunctious self again. "Hey, Ed," she announced, drawing out the vowels in the words. "Guess what we got!" She dropped a case next to him. It made a heavy thud as it hit the mattress. Pinako followed, holding open the door for a nurse who pushed a cart with a tray of food into the room.<p>

"Wait a moment, Winry, the nurse here has to do a quick check-up on Ed here," Pinako said, putting a hand on Winry's arm as if to restrain her. Winry's lower lip jutted out, and she made a little "Hmph!" of disapproval, but she stepped back and allowed the nurse full access to Ed.

The nurse placed a stethoscope on his chest and back as he took deep breaths and let them out slowly. She also shone a light in his eyes and took his pulse before declaring him perfectly healthy. She smiled at Ed and set the tray on the bed next to him, then closed the door as she made her way out of the room with a cart.

Ed's eyes lit up at the food, enough so that he ignored Winry's prodding at his artificial arm. He ate with his left hand as she removed the arm and leg from Earth and set them aside to exclaim over later.

She opened the heavy case happily. "See, Ed, I improved them!" she said, beaming at him. A metal arm and leg lay in the case, bigger than his last ones. They looked like they would fit him perfectly. And the lines of the metal, the design, looked more refined and elegant than Winry's previous work. He ran the pads of his fingers over them, awed, and glanced up at her, unsure of what he could say to express what he was feeling right now. Things like that had never been, and would never be, his forte – they made him uncomfortable and exposed, but she had gone to so much trouble…

He swallowed with some difficulty. "Thank… you," he said, the words closing up his throat somehow. He flicked his gaze away from her delighted eyes, looking carefully at the pattern of tiles on the floor as she smiled with sheer happiness. He missed the wry, amused smile Granny Pinako and Mustang shared, and the grin Al gave Winry, as if telling her, "See? He does appreciate you." He even grabbed the bottle of milk unconsciously and had downed half of it before realizing what it was and spewing it back out, horrified.

"It's not funny!" he insisted for the fifth time, sulking like a child. Winry and Al were giggling uncontrollably, Pinako was chuckling under her breath, and even Mustang had let out a large, deep laugh for a few moments. Winry got herself enough under control that she could start getting Ed's automail ports ready to be joined to the shiny new limbs, though she was still hiding her face from Ed and shaking slightly trying to contain herself. Al didn't seem to be intent on stopping anytime soon, but Ed could forgive him that. The laughter that came from all of them was the relief of having someone they cared for deeply back, alive, and whole in body and spirit. It was the kind of stress relief you get when there is nothing more you can do besides laugh.

* * *

><p>Once again, please reveiw! Honestly tell me what you think about Resi, please!<p>

Thank you for reading my story!


End file.
